Is your job designed for job satisfaction and optimum performance?
The Job Characteristics Model, developed by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldman, in the mid 70s, proposed that five core job characteristics impact upon three psychological states.
The job characteristics of skill variety, task identity and task significance, impact on the psychological state of meaningfulness, that is experienced at work.
The job characteristic of autonomy, impacts on the psychological state of responsibility, that is experienced at work.
The job characteristic of feedback, impacts on the psychological state relating to knowledge of the results of work activities, that is experienced at work.
According to Hackman and Oldman the three aforementioned psychological states impact upon motivation, job satisfaction and work performance. Therefore, this model can be used to increase staff motivation, enhance their job satisfaction and work performance.
As you review the composition of the model consider how you can use it to increase job satisfaction for yourself, your staff or your colleagues.
Skill variety – the options available to a worker to engage a variety of skills during work, affects how they feel about their work and the level of satisfaction they enjoy. Different jobs necessitate different levels of skills. A surgeon needs a broad skill set to draw upon during surgery, whilst a till operator in a supermarket would engage less skill variety to execute his/her duties. Do you engage a broad variety of skills when engaged in your work? Do you feel more motivated if you utilize multiple skills during you work day?
Task identity – refers to the ability of a worker to identify a complete job from beginning to end, or an outcome, or only to be able identify part of a job. If you consider the work you do, are you more motivated if you had the ability to start and finish a job, project or piece of work? Is it more satisfying to see an end product to the work you do?
Task significance - the extent to which the work impacts upon others. Do you feel your work has more meaning due to the impact is has on others? A doctor may view their work as having task significance due to the amount of people affected by the provision of medical services. A security guard working on a deserted industrial estate, may feel less task significance associated with his/her job.
As a result of skill variety, task identity and task significance a worker can experience meaningful work, resulting in high intrinsic motivation.
Autonomy – the ability of a worker to exercise independent choice of how they execute their tasks. This is the opposite of micro management, where a worker lacks options to choose how to, when and where to perform their duties. Do you feel you have sufficient autonomy in your work environment? What could you do to enhance the level of autonomy you can exercise? Would you be more motivated if you had more autonomy?
Feedback from job – the ability of the worker to have access to information that enables an evaluation of how well they are performing. What feedback do you have access to, that reflects your level of work performance? If you work in sales, it could be actual sales versus target sales. If you work in customer service, it could be the level of star ratings you receive from customers.
If you have any difficulties applying this model, please feel free to send me an e mail explaining the issue and I’ll give you some input. Please e mail michael@michaellukecollins.com
